Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Rhyme

Thanks again to Metafilter for digging this up. It’s a mashup of some of hip hop’s big names with strange Zelda midi tunes. It’s just the type of nerd-tastic enterprise that lights the internet on fire. However, the execution of this album does leave something to be desired.

It’s hard, because I really want to appreciate the work that someone obviously put into the album, but it’s not entirely smooth. Many of the tracks (I think especially the Dr. Dre mashup) seem hasty and unfinished. Almost to the point where I kind of wish different vocals were used. However, a few worked out better than others.

Common’s I Used to Love H.E.R. worked pretty well. The best sounding one has to be Aesop Rock’s No Jumper Cables. The MF Doom track worked pretty well, simply because his rhyme style lends itself to a variety of beats. I think too many of the failed tracks simply didn’t work because the artist’s flow was so tailored to the actual beat. Doom manages to be choppy enough that you can pretty much put him over anything you want and make it sound like it was designed to be that way.